Fish ID ?

John McKroid

SE Florida 250ft of water, metered a school 200ft down, and this is what came for two consecutive drops. 



The Little Tunnies kept splashing my GoPro, so apologies for the blurred photo.

conchydong

Almost looks like a hybrid of a Almaco and a Banded Rudderfish. ??? Got me on this one.

Monstarules

Hi John!

It's a juvenile lesser amberjack, you can tell by the yellowish stripe and the brown bars. Neat catch!

John McKroid

Monstarules said:

Hi John!

It's a juvenile lesser amberjack, you can tell by the yellowish stripe and the brown bars. Neat catch!

Thanks for the confirmation!  They are an infrequent catch for me and I always get them confused with Rudderfish.

Monstarules

John McKroid said:

Monstarules said:

Hi John!

It's a juvenile lesser amberjack, you can tell by the yellowish stripe and the brown bars. Neat catch!

Thanks for the confirmation!  They are an infrequent catch for me and I always get them confused with Rudderfish.

It's easy to get them confused! I think the easiest way to tell is that the jaw of a rudderfish forms an almost 90° angle with the rear of the eye, whereas the jaw of the lesser AJ forms an almost 90° angle with the front of the pupil of the eye. Lesser AJs also have a deeper body compared to rudderfish.